Nanny X by Madelyn Rosenberg Read Free Book Online Page A

judge,” said Nanny X. “But I expect they’ll be back soon. Meanwhile, we’d like to ask you a few questions, if we may.”
    â€œGo ahead. Everyone else has.”
    â€œHow did you know the park was in trouble?” she asked.
    â€œI’m very concerned about the environment,” he said. “And it wasn’t a secret, was it? It was in the newspaper.”
    â€œAh,” said Nanny X. “Go on.”
    â€œWe live right behind that park. If they put a factory there, we’ll be living behind a factory.”
    â€œSo you would stand to lose a lot if the park became a factory?”
    â€œSure I would,” Stinky said. “So would the whole town.”
    â€œTouché,” Nanny X said. “But that does speak to motive. Now: You didn’t throw any rocks at the mayor?” The way she asked it, it didn’t sound like a real question. Stinky seemed to know she was on his side.
    â€œI only picked up one rock today,” he said. “I was still holding it when they grabbed me.”
    â€œAnd they assumed—”
    â€œThey thought since I was holding that rock, I must have thrown the first one. But that’s not why I had it.”
    â€œYou thought it was a geode?” Nanny X remembered. Of course she did—she remembered everything.
    â€œExactly,” Stinky said. “I was saving it for later. Sometimes you can’t tell it’s really a geode until you crack it open. Now they’re saying I can’t even have it back. It’s evidence.”
    Then
I
remembered something. “What hand were you holding the sign with?” I asked him.
    â€œMy right,” he said. “I’m a righty.”
    â€œAnd you had the geode in your left hand?”
    â€œYeah,” he said. “It was too big to fit in my pocket.” He looked down at his jeans. “I guess these are kind of small,” he said.
    â€œThen you couldn’t have thrown the rock,” said Jake. “It’s hard to pitch when your hands are full.”
    â€œExactly,” I said. Sometimes my brother and I still think alike. Unfortunately, all of this mentioning of hands made me want to chew my fingernails, but I fought it and kept talking. “You couldn’t have thrown anything at the mayor, even if you wanted to.”
    â€œWell,
maybe
he could have,” Jake said, backtracking and spoiling the whole idea. “But he couldn’t have thrown it very
hard
,” he added, unspoiling it. “Whoever hit the mayor had a really hard throw; otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten knocked out.”
    Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Nanny X smiling again. “Make sure you pass that nugget on to your lawyer, Daniel,” she said. Then her lips resumed their normal position. “You do agree someone threw something, though, correct?”
    â€œSure, anyone could see that,” Stinky said. “I don’t think it was a rock, though.”
    Jake and I exchanged looks. Yeti drooled on Eliza’s foot.
    â€œWhy not?”
    â€œWell,” said Stinky, “if it was a rock and it was really as big as it looked, the person who threw it would have to be really strong or use an industrial-strength slingshot or something. Most of the people at that protest didn’t look like they could throw very well. No offense.”
    â€œWe don’t think the mayor was hit by a rock, either!” I blurted out.
    â€œSee!” Stinky said. He pushed his hair out of his eyes. “What do you think it was?”
    Jake and I looked at Nanny X to see if it was okay to tell. She gave us the nanny nod. “A coconut,” we said.
    â€œHmm,” Stinky said. “Coconuts are heavy, but they’re not as dense as rocks, even with the milk still inside them.” He paused a minute. “But why would someone throw a coconut at the mayor?”
    I shrugged. That was what we were trying to figure out.
    â€œDid